Being A Christian - r jackson

When I was 8 years old a missionary came to our Baptist Church for a revival, he was there for a week Sunday to Sunday. The first Sunday he was there he visited all the Sunday School Classes and talked to the young people. He talked to our group and asks us all if we believed in Jesus Christ, and that he died for our sins. Of coarse we all said yes. He then said all of us that weren’t baptized needed to come down to the pulpit and dedicate our lives to Christ during that morning’s service. He also said that we could be riding home with our parents after church and be hit by another car and be killed, and if that did happen our souls would be in hell forever.
The above speaks volumes about what is wrong with organized religion. Let’s study the paragraph thoroughly.
Why was this self confessed man of God trying to frighten us into the church? The man was an ordained minister. He was either ignorant of what he was doing or was intentionally trying to put more feathers in his cap to make his self look better, his ego was showing. He was trying to frighten us into becoming Christians, and to make his record look better. According to my bible only God can choose you, you cannot choose God. Ephesians 2: 8-9.How many Christians in the church are really saved by the only method that they can be saved and that is by God choosing them. How many are saved because of a fast talking, egotistical preacher? How many are saved because of fear tactics from a preacher. Any method except the first, being chosen by God means that they are not saved. If we took all of the Christians chosen by God into one group how many would there be? Matthew 22: 14This saddens my heart when I think of all the people who at one time were sincerely seeking God the Father and then because of egotistical preachers and men teaching falsehoods they have become disillusioned with there brand of church. Religion is all about control. You need not belong to a church in order to worshiped God. Matt.18:20Church members are earnestly seeking God; they try and do what they are told to do in order to have the Father in their life. The problem is that they cannot get to the point that they want to get to, because they are trying to listen to their minister that sometimes knows no more than they do.
We need to take our spiritual life in our own hands and turn it over to God, he is the only one that can teach us and guide us in the direction that we need to go. 1 John 2: 27
Steps we can follow to let the Father rule our lives and not man.

1. Understand that God chose us in the beginning.
2. Jesus took away our sins, sin is no more. Hebrews 9:24-263. You must know that you have been totally redeemed; God has taken away every sin, every habit, in the past, in the present and in the future.-You must know that as far as God is concerned we are guiltless, without spot or blemish. God does not see sin. It is no more.
4. When you fall short forgive yourselves, because God does not hold it against you.
5. Know that God is perfecting you day by day, not all at once. You cannot perfect yourself; all you can do is have the desire to please the Father.
6. Know that "the only way that we can bring the kingdom of God to earth is to recognize everything that should not be in His kingdom and make sure it isn’t in us." (Gary Sigler)
7. Seek the Kingdom of God (not heaven) and Love Your neighbors; Love you enemies, this is all that you must do.
8. God is Love, God will never punish you ( let you burn in Hell) but he will perfect you.
9. Remember Matt. 18:20 “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”